Over the last 100 years various substances have been used to cover and form wheels upon which automobiles could ride. The pursuit of harder and more durable substances for this purpose has culminated in the present synthetic tires which are virtually indestructible. This indestructibility has been a boon to the automobile industry and society in general by creating a reliable and safe wheel usable under adverse conditions such as extreme high speed, friction and cold. Puncture-proofing and steel belting have contributed to the general indestructibility. This boon is creating a solid waste nightmare.
Recently a hugh tire graveyard caught fire and graphically demonstrated how a solid waste problem was quickly converted into an air pollution problem. Whether the old tires are burned, heaped up, or buried, no one knows how long natural deterioration will require. Time has shown that buried tires eventually rise to the surface of landfills thereby puncturing the clay cells. Recently a program of shredding the tires has resulted in less space being taken up by the discarded tires, but no ultimate use has been found to reduce the eventual mounding of shredded rubber.
EPA regulations concerning the disposal of discarded tires provides that they be handled as a solid waste. Many states, such as Indiana, require a license once more than 500 tires are on site.
Another problem of discarded tires has to do the generally less than aesthetic appearance of a pile of discarded tires. Strewn around the country, one can easily observe the use of individual tires as planters of halved tires stood on the cut ends as garden borders. Another common use is as buffer at marinas to keep docking boats from crashing into harder substances. Often individual tire dealers, gas station owners and collectors of junk cars secretly bury used tires, or discard them along lonely stretch of roads or woods. As these tires will for all practical purposes last forever these discarded tires are begining to clutter the landscape and provided a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other water-borne insect larva.
In addition to the long-term environmental problems noted above, discarded tires present immediate economic losses. Operators of businesses where tires are sold, such as service stations and tire dealerships, pay to have discarded tires hauled off to disposal sites. The price for such haulage is calculated on a "per-tire" basis (currently around $2.00/tire), and represents a substantial drain on cash flow for such businesses.
In a separate context, mazes have long been a staple of human amusement and entertainment. Most mazes take the form of parlor games, but "larger-than-life" mazes, built on such a scale as to allow humans to enter and wander through are also known. Due to their size, such mazes are usually erected and constructed out of wood and out-of-doors. Constant exposure of wooden maze walls to the elements greatly accelerates their deterioration, rendering the maze both short-lived and potentially dangerous.